We think that the work of our hands amount to something and something of the work of our hands remain. But when all is said and done, what remains?
In today’s study, we will look at three oracles, to Babylon, Edom and Arabia.
(A) A coming future, dreary: God’s afflicted people must not trust idols of self-sufficiency (Isa 21:1-10)
Isaiah 21:1 tells us that this is an oracle “concerning the wilderness of the sea”. Jeremiah 51:36-37, 42-43 helps us to understand more clearly who this oracle concerns. God said that “Babylon shall become a heap of ruins” (Jer 51:37a). God goes on to describe how “the sea has come up on Babylon", covered with tumultuous waves and “her cities have become a horror, a land of drought and a desert” (Jer 51:42-43). We get an ironic image. There is judgement twice over for Babylon — firstly, flooded by the waters of God’s wrath, then stricken by the barrenness that ensues. Thus we see that Isaiah 21:1a refers to Babylon.
Let us unpack this oracle, as well as its significance for the listeners. Isaiah receives an oracle (Isa 21:1a-2b). He sees whirlwinds from a terrible land. This is certain, sure and terrifying and Isaiah begins with this tone.
Isaiah sees a stern vision (Isa 21:2a) and there seems to be a principle of destruction and betrayal in the world (Isa 21:2b). Isaiah also speaks of Elam and Media, who were competent military powers at the time of Assyria’s dominance. Media would eventually go on to destroy Babylon (Isa 21:2c). Who is speaking here? It has to be someone who is in a position of authority (Isa 21:2d).
As a result, Isaiah is wrecked with agony (Isa 21:3). This could be surprising, because we would expect them to be joyous. Yet, Isaiah seems to be full of unbearable pain (Isa 21:3). Why? The ‘twilight’ he had longed to witness has turned into “trembling” (Isa 21:4). This probably involved Assyria’s fall, Babylonian folly, and Judah’s fraternising with a doomed power (Babylon).
Isaiah’s trembling can be understood in 1 or a combination of 3 ways:
The horror of God’s unvarnished judgment pronounced in sin unfettered
The horror of judgment/discipline continued
The horror of Judah’s alliance with the doomed
In contrast, we witness Judah’s vain celebration (Isa 21:5). Where Isaiah sees grief and vanity, others think they see glory and victory. Isaiah witnesses war firsthand. We see war through screens but this is not what Isaiah sees here. There is going to be a terrible warfare by world powers and marked by betrayal and politics. He sees the destruction, mutilation and God’s unvarnished judgment pronounced over sin without any filters.
God tells Isaiah to set a watchman that announces what he sees (Isa 21:6). Isaiah the watchman sees another vision, Babylon’s eventual fall, where the carved images of her gods have been shattered (Isa 21:8). Babylon had a reputation for acquiring idols, setting up points for worship to manoeuvre the powers-that-be into their vainglorious ambitions. This watchman cried out like a lion, as written in the translation note, which shows his resolute nature (Isa 21:8a). This vision of Babylon’s destruction is consistent with earlier mention of God’s judgment on the whole earth (Isa 13:9-11) and is also consistent with a later mention of God’s judgment of the Babylonian spirit in Revelation 18:1-8.
But, who does God announce these things to (Isa 21:10)? God, the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel announced to God’s threshed and winnowed people. As a threshed and winnowed people, they would have felt the pangs of temptation to reach for worldly security to make friends and to build pragmatic alliances. The people would have the impulse to make friends with Babylon, against Assyria (c.f. Isa 39:1-2). But here, Babylon falls.
God knows the temptation that God’s threshed and winnowed people face. When they feel the pressures of the world, they will be tempted to seek allies and alliances with other world powers. Babylon here, epitomised idolatry and is an unvarnished picture of idolatry. Idolatry is ultimately a front for self-worship and self-glory. In Daniel 2, we read of how the king sets up an idol of himself for worship. Babylon shows us a common temptation, to be self-sufficient and to rise above everyone else.
In Isaiah 21, through the oracle, Isaiah was pointing to the people how God is always in the business of shattering idols. In Revelation 18:1-8, God’s people find themselves in Babylon at this point (Rev 18:4). This often comes out of a pragmatic desire. Babylon is still vain and sits as a queen (Rev 18:4b-7). Through this vision in Isaiah 21, God was getting them to think: why would they enter in this sort of alliance with a power that’s doomed to fail? This too, is a struggle for us. We seek comfort and wealth is our security. What idols do you see in our day? And do we recognise God’s resolve to shatter them?
The LORD of hosts is the God of Israel, however frail she might be. God’s people may be threshed and winnowed, but all of this is meant to drive her away from idols and toward repentance, not further into idols and toward recalcitrance. In Motyer’s words, “The blows are his blows, purposely designed to bring the crop safely into the granary.”
We’ve been looking at the content of God’s message, but how does God’s prophet announce this message? We see it in Isaiah 21:3-4 and also in Isaiah 13:8. Isaiah 13:8 describes the pangs seizing the earth and pangs seizing Isaiah. The prophet is not distanced from his message. He knows what it is like to behold the holiness of God and feel the weight of sin — both His own also that of others. This is the prophet, after all, whose commissioning was marked by the cry, “Woe is me! I am undone.” He is virtually enmeshed in the emotions accompanying judgment proclaimed. See the prophet’s heart for the people, based on the message that he has.
How do we speak about God’s judgement? When we proclaim God’s truths to a dying world, we do so with grief. We know that this is right, not because social activists of our day slant our hearts to sympathy. But because Jesus the true and greater prophet spoke of judgment in the same vein. Consider His lament. We who pronounce His judgment, are called to adopt His heart towards a dying world. In our pronouncements, our listeners should also hear the message, ’Oh I know what it is to stand under condemnation, for I was condemned too!’.
In Matthew 23:37-38, notice how Jesus spoke. He pronounced woe upon woe but didn’t just stop there. Jesus did not just weep, He went to the cross to bear that judgment that we deserve. Christian, if you are tempted to infatuation with the world today, look at your Saviour. He did not simply come to weep for us. He came to save us. The prophet Isaiah’s heart prepares us for the Saviour’s work. Our God does not just feel sympathy. He enmeshes Himself with our suffering, going all the way to bring wayward sinners home.
(B) No rest for the weary: God utterly destroys the glories of this world (Isa 21:11-17)
Isaiah goes on with an oracle concerning Dumah (Isa 21:11). Note that Dumah is in Edom, and Seir is also another name for Edom. Here, one is asking from Edom, how long more is the night going to last and he is asking with urgency, because the night is not enjoyable (Isa 21: 11).
In the watchman’s answer, we read of how morning will come, but so will night too (Isa 21:12). They are also to come back and ask again (Isa 21:12b). Why? While things seem to be repeating themselves, it will not play out in the same way. Thus, they are to come and enquire again and again. This seems to describe the iterative nature of world powers and world history.
As we try to make sense of this, let us also pause and consider history and our present times. Throughout Isaiah, we’ve been reading of Assyria and Babylon among other world powers. How many decades did they last? What about our international order? In the present form, it has been only about 100 years, give or take. And when we consider our nation, we have only been an independent entity for 57 years this year. Do we think that things will go on in the same way? These verses remind us that things won’t always happen the same way. The reality that It is good for one to inquire, for these things will come to an end. All of history, with its cyclical rise and fall of nations, is moving towards God’s ordained time. The true dawn is yet to come.
How are we going about our life? Are we seeking just a good job and that life will unfold according to our ways? Do we recognise that there is more to life, and there is to come a final day of judgment?
Isaiah 21:13-15 goes on to detail an oracle concerning Arabia. We see the reach of God’s present judgement. God’s judgment will shake the world and all of its constituent parts. There will not be any untouched corner of the world. Kedar, the pride of Arabia, found relief in their glory but within a year, this oracle states, this will be stripped down and broken (Isa 21:16). We may struggle to make sense of everything in this oracle, because we don’t know the places nor the people’s relationships. Yet, see how God is going to act. He addresses them clearly and specifically, and even they cannot say that God has not revealed Himself to them.
As we read the oracle to Arabia, why does Kedar’s glory come to an end? “For the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.” If it’s not clear yet, this is why we gather to study God’s word with God’s people. This is why we read God’s word both individually and corporate. We do not read to grow really good at Bible trivia, but because the Lord has spoken. How do you relate to His word today? Listen to His word and also proclaim His word. Why? Remember that His word is sure. It is also effectual. This is a God who effects things by His speech. Go and know this God.
Throughout Isaiah 21, we get a picture of how this is a God who is God. He is a God who is a God of all of the world. This is a God who is so big, yet is also concerned about glory so localised. Human glory is futile. it will fade. Not simply because of time’s natural passing and the wear and tear it brings. It is not merely like a river smoothing out the jagged edges of a stone. But there is a potter, and we are the clay. He made, and He will mould as He wills for His glory. And He has a word for any claim to self-glory — even if we are growing a little garden of glory. Are you tending gardens of your own glory? Does this cause your heart to tremble?
This is a God who messes with our categories. He is at once so fixated with single-minded focus on His glory, that we might think Him entirely selfish. Yet He shatters that category in Christ. He is also inexplicably self-less. He enmeshes Himself with our suffering to redeem us for His glory.
What kind of a God is this? Only a God who is God. Only the God who does not fit neatly into our categories, whims, and wants, who justifies sinners at the cost of His own precious blood so that we might know our greatest good in His glory. And He draws all peoples to Himself. He says, come and share in my glory. We need this God.
Today, He is still in the same business of shattering idols. He calls us to ditch our own glories — our pursuit of promotion, or looking to that relationship, or that ideal life. He calls us to lay it down, and to come to Him. He calls us to look to Him not just to be filled with a sense of peace, but to be built up with the power to put your sin to death. He is the God of Col 2:15, who has isarmed the demonic rulers and authorities of this age and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Christ. Look to Christ not just to see that He has taken the judgment, but also see how He is bringing us through life and to fight sin. And just like how Paul write to the Colossians in Colossians 3:3-4, our hope is also that we will appear with Him in glory, His glory. We can rest in Him.